Loori, I have two 2-foot long trough-shaped planters that I used last year, one for beans and the other for peas. As I understand, growing those enriches the soil with nitrogen, but doesn't do anything negative to the soil. I'd be more concerned if the soil had dried out completely though, might have to add some bulky stuff into it if that's the case. What I'm doing is adding a bunch of perlite into mine, and mixing a small bag of new miracle grow (use any brand) potting soil into the old soil, just to enrich it. I'm planting a bunch of flowers into there to change it up from the fruits/vegies/herbs I've always grown. If your soil dried out completely, I'd add a bunch more new soil into it, definitely grab a bag of perlite to throw in too, and maybe pick up some fertilizer to mix in to your watering can (I use a miracle grow tomato fertilizer in most things, seems pretty balanced and I already have it on hand). If possible, work that soil and some moisture into it for about a week before popping your strawberry plants into there, so it's not too 'dusty'. Let me know how it works out. I'm also growing strawberries this year, Tri-star and All-star, in shallower troughs that'll hang from the balcony top - I'm super excited to try it. :)

Sand is good in small amounts with a soil mix and desert sands CAN be good, as their calcium-rich alkalinity can sweeten carrot flavor, but if those sands are too salty, most vegetables don't like soils with too much free sodium. Rinsed sands are one way to avoid this, you can wash out some sodium chlorides & carbonates while keeping the calcium & manganese oxides. I have to admit I have no idea about the particulars of Dubai desert sand and am generalizing based on California's desert sands. Sounds like what you need is fully composted organic matter - grass, leaves, bark, manure, ... Sand has essentially no nitrogen and purchased soil often lacks the useful microrganisms that help process dead vegetation into usable nutrients anyway. Some mall soils are mainly useful as a way of maintaining drainage in containers and preventing root rot, but if they are all you use, it's like putting your crops on a diet. That's why so many people add chemical fertilizers to container plants. But you want to try and avoid bringing in diseases or pests along with the compost, there's always some risk with non-sterile soil amendments. It's a bit of a balancing act as well as the subject of quite a lot of discussion about creating perfect soil mixes for particular plants. As a novice, you mainly want to understand that you must have nitrogen to even get the plants growing, then phosphorus and potassium (N/P/K on fertilizer labels) and micro-nutrients for crop production. Desert sands will almost guarantee you potassium and if you want to extend your gardening knowledge into ecological knowledge about your surroundings, using various native soils in your yard can be very educational.

I visited local gardening store, explained the shop-assistant what I am going to do- to plant wild strawberry seedlings into the soil initially meant for flowers but which PH is suitable for wild straberries.The soil characteristics are as follows: the main part fairly loose peat, the rest part are cut up limestone, pebble, Ph 5,5-6,5, the added fertilizer 2,0 kg/m3 NPK feltilizer. Then I asked her about the necessity to add regular fertilizer, as I read before that wild strawberries can grow without any fertilizer. The shop-assistant advised me to add into the soil Natural fertilizer on the basis of worms in the proportion 1:3. And as if this worm based fertilizer will be enough for on avarege 3 years of wild strawberries productive growth period.I want to know if she is right or may be it is not necessary at all to add any fertilizer to the soil? Could you answer this question and give some recommendation on the fertilizing and illnesses prevention medium to get a good yield of wild straberries!?

First, in container culture you cannot rely on either the soil or what you originally mixed into the soil to supply your plants nutrition. You MUST fertilize if you want to have healthy plantings (with only a few exceptions for the odd plant here & there). Your question should be "What do you do to ensure the structural integrity of the soil after the first year; or, can you suggest a fertilizer program for my containerized plants. Some do and some won't reuse their soils. For lengthy discussions on that subject, do a search of this forum with the searchwords reuse soil. For fertilizer suggestions, you might wish to start at the thread linked to below & then formulate any additional questions you might have. Best of luck. ;o) Al Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizing